XML and Web Services In The News - 18 February 2005

Web Services 2005: Five Keys Unlock the Gate
Joe Keller, Integration Developer News
Joe Keller is Vice President, Marketing for Java Web Services and Tools, Sun Microsystems, Inc. He argues that "Confusion arises over the proliferation of web services specifications that are excessively complex, incomplete and overlapping. Many web services specifications are being developed outside of recognized standards bodies and don't provide a level playing field for industry participants. This results in arbitrary power plays for standards leadership and standards fragmentation. It's a recipe for the early death of a very promising technology trend that could lead us to the true service-oriented application architectures required for the next wave of Internet growth." He suggests that if web services standards are to be widely adopted and successful, they must overcome the current chaos and confusion; he outlines five requirements for Internet standards success. Web services standards must be: (1) openly debated and scrutinized by truly transparent, inclusive and democratic institutions dedicated to developing open standards; (2) royalty free; (3) demonstrated through reference implementations and detailed test suites to be compatible in practice; (4) converged to avoid technology complexity and customer inaction; (5) free-standing -- standards should not reference other specs that are proprietary or outside of the same standards effort.

The ConsortiumInfo.org Standards MetaLibrary
Andrew Updegrove, Consortium Standards Bulletin
"We take great pleasure this month in announcing the newest major resource at ConsortiumInfo.org: the Standards MetaLibrary. A 'metalibrary' is a means to an end, and not the end in itself. In this case, the MetaLibrary is a research tool comprising an ever-increasing number of carefully indexed, sortable and searchable abstracts (705, as of the launch date) of articles about standards. Each abstract is linked to the full text of the article at its host site. The Standards MetaLibrary is not limited to material about standards in a narrow sense. Rather, it focuses on the importance of standards to the modern world and their impact on society, and how they are created, and by whom. The materials included therefore address topics such as how the standard setting process operates, how governments support this process and utilize standards, the economic benefits of standards uptake, legal aspects of the use (and abuse) of standards, and many other subjects that illustrate the role of standards in the world today. The MetaLibrary is made possible through a generous grant from Sun Microsystems and the support of Gesmer Updegrove LLP.
See also: the Standards MetaLibrary

Major Companies Team on Vulnerability Rating System
Paul Roberts, InfoWorld
Leading IT companies including Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and Symantec are promoting a rating system that will standardize the measurement of the severity of software vulnerabilities. A plan for the new system, called the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), was unveiled at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on Thursday. If widely adopted, the new system will provide a common language for describing the seriousness of computer security vulnerabilities and replace different, vendor- specific rating systems, according to a presentation on the system by Mike Schiffman, a researcher at Cisco. The new scoring system is part of a project by the National Infrastructure Advisory Council to create a global framework for disclosing information about security vulnerabilities. CVSS will use standard mathematical equations to calculate the severity of new vulnerabilities based on basic information such as whether a vulnerability can be remotely exploited, or whether an attacker must log in to a vulnerable system before being able to take advantage of a security hole.
See also: Application Security Standards

W3C Launches URI Interest Group
Staff, W3C News
On February 16, 2005 W3C announced "the relaunch of the URI Activity. The new URI Interest Group, chaired by Dan Connolly (W3C) and Norman Walsh (Sun Microsystems), is chartered through 28-February-2007. The group reviews ongoing work related to Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) and helps to deploy quality implementations by maintaining testing materials. Participation is open to W3C Members and the public. The Group will review of URI/IRI issues between W3C and the IETF, including monitoring maintenance of the IANA URI scheme registry, updating and maintaining materials and documentation on the W3C site relevant to URIs, and promoting development of supplementary guidelines. Participants will bring architectural issues and recommendations to the attention of the TAG, and will serve as a resource for information and clarifications involving URI issues to the W3C Membership. The group will work with other organizations on URI/IRI issues where appropriate and maintain testing materials.
See also: the related news story

EU's Software Patent Law Hits Bump
Ingrid Marson, ZDNet News UK
The European Parliament's request for a proposed software patent law to be scrapped and started from scratch was ratified by senior members of the Parliament on Thursday, but campaigners from both sides are split on what will happen next. The proposed law would make allow software to be patented in the European Union. Under current law, software cannot be patented in the 25-nation EU, though there have been some cases where patents have been granted for certain inventions that make use of software. The bill has been extremely controversial. Critics of the legislation say it would harm small software developers who lack big companies' legal muscle. Some also fear it would restrict the amount of open-source software, which is available for free. Big industry players argue the current conditions do not allow them to protect inventions they spend years developing.

New Release of Web Services Reliable Messaging Protocol (WS-ReliableMessaging).
XML Cover Pages
BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, and TIBCO have released a revised version of "WS-ReliableMessaging." WS-RM is now published as two separate specifications: one for the core protocol elements and one for the related policy assertion (WS-RM Policy). This release, updating the March 2004 version and offered for use on royalty-free licensing terms, has been improved based upon user feedback from a May 2004 Interoperability Workshop and subsequent endpoint testing.
See also: Reliable Messaging